Acquiring Science and Social Studies Knowledge in Kindergarten Through Fourth Grade: Conceptualization, Design, Implementation, and Efficacy Testing of Content-Area Literacy Instruction (CALI)

Do Mathematics and Reading Skills Impact Student Science Outcomes?

Establishing validated science programs for students with or at risk for learning disabilities requires testing treatment effects and exploring differential response patterns. This study explored whether students' initial mathematics and reading skills influenced their treatment response to a whole-class, second-grade science program called Scientific Explorers (Sci2). The original Sci2 study employed a cluster randomized controlled design and included 294 U.S. students from 18 second-grade classrooms. Differential effects of the program by initial mathematics and reading skill levels were not observed for an interactive science assessment and a distal science outcome measure. However, based on initial reading skill levels, moderation results were found on a science vocabulary measure, suggesting the effects of Sci2 were greatest for students with higher initial reading skills. Similar results were found using initial mathematics skill levels as a predictor of differential response such that students with higher mathematics skills reaped stronger treatment effects on the vocabulary measure. Further, we found initial mathematics skills also influenced outcomes on the proximal science content assessment, where students with higher initial mathematics skills led to higher outcomes. Overall, findings suggest Sci2 produced robust effects for all students (g = 0.24-1.23), regardless of initial skill proficiencies. Implications for exploring differential response in science intervention research are discussed.

Overlooked advantages of interactive book reading in early childhood? A systematic review and research agenda

Previous reviews of the nature and consequences of adult-child book reading have focused on seeking impacts of interactive reading on the acquisition of vocabulary and emergent literacy skills. In this systematic review we examined to what extent there has been systematic study of the effects of interactive reading on four less frequently studied developmental outcomes important to children's academic and life prospects: socio-emotional and socio-cognitive (SEL) skills, narrative skills, grammar, and world knowledge. We identified 67 studies of interactive reading that met the inclusion criteria and that examined the targeted outcomes, using either experimental, quasi-experimental, correlational, or single-group intervention methods. We found that studies of effects on grammar and world knowledge outcomes were very sparsely represented; though narrative was often studied as an outcome, the wide variation in conceptualizing and assessing the construct hampered any clear conclusion about book-reading effects. The most robust research strand focused on SEL skill outcomes, though here too the outcome assessments varied widely. We speculate that better instrumented approaches to assessing vocabulary and emergent literacy have led to the persistent emphasis on these domains, despite robust evidence of only modest associations, and argue that work to develop sound shared measures of narrative and SEL skills would enable cross-study comparison and the accumulation of findings. In addition, we note that the various studies implicated different explanatory principles for the value of reading with children: specific interactional features (open-ended questions, following the child's lead, expanding child utterances) or content features (emotion-enhanced books, talk about mental states, science topics), raising another topic for more focused study in the future.

The effect of stimulant medication on the learning of academic curricula in children with ADHD: A randomized crossover study

OBJECTIVE

Evaluate whether stimulant medication improves acquisition of academic material in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) receiving small-group, content-area instruction in a classroom setting.

METHOD

Participants were 173 children between the ages of 7 and 12 years old (77% male, 86% Hispanic) who met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) criteria for ADHD and were participating in a therapeutic summer camp. The design was a triple-masked, within-subject, AB/BA crossover trial. Children completed two consecutive phases of daily, 25-min instruction in both (a) subject-area content (science, social studies) and (b) vocabulary. Each phase was a standard instructional unit lasting for 3 weeks. Teachers and aides taught the material to small groups in a summer classroom setting. Each child was randomized to be medicated with daily osmotic-release oral system methylphenidate (OROS-MPH) during either the first or second of the instructional phases, receiving placebo during the other.

RESULTS

Medication had large, salutary, statistically significant effects on children's academic seatwork productivity and classroom behavior on every single day of the instructional period. However, there was no detectable effect of medication on learning the material taught during instruction: Children learned the same amount of subject-area and vocabulary content whether they were taking OROS-MPH or placebo during the instructional period.

CONCLUSIONS

Acute effects of OROS-MPH on daily academic seatwork productivity and classroom behavior did not translate into improved learning of new academic material taught via small-group, evidence-based instruction. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Combined Treatment for Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Brief History, the Multimodal Treatment for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Study, and the Past 20 Years of Research

Decades of research support 3 interventions for youth with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): behavioral intervention, stimulant medication, and their combination. However, professional organizations have long disagreed regarding the best approach for implementing evidence-based interventions for ADHD in practice. The accompanying Society of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics guidelines for complex ADHD provide a framework for initiating treatment with behavioral intervention and adding stimulant medication as necessary, resulting in combined/multimodal treatment for many, if not most, children. In this special article, we review the extant literature on combined treatment, with special emphasis on the past 15 years of research that have led to the recommendation for this approach. Specifically, we review the literature on dosing and sequencing of multimodal treatment for youth with ADHD and the impact of multimodal interventions on areas of functional impairment. The extant research provides clear support for a psychosocial-first approach in treating youth with complex ADHD.

How the Science of Reading Informs 21st-Century Education

The science of reading should be informed by an evolving evidence base built upon the scientific method. Decades of basic research and randomized controlled trials of interventions and instructional routines have formed a substantial evidence base to guide best practices in reading instruction, reading intervention, and the early identification of at-risk readers. The recent resurfacing of questions about what constitutes the science of reading is leading to misinformation in the public space that may be viewed by educational stakeholders as merely differences of opinion among scientists. Our goals in this paper are to revisit the science of reading through an epistemological lens to clarify what constitutes evidence in the science of reading and to offer a critical evaluation of the evidence provided by the science of reading. To this end, we summarize those things that we believe have compelling evidence, promising evidence, or a lack of compelling evidence. We conclude with a discussion of areas of focus that we believe will advance the science of reading to meet the needs of all children in the 21st century.

Building Word Knowledge, Learning Strategies, and Metacognition with the Word-Knowledge E-Book

Many children fail to comprehend what they read because they do not monitor their understanding, which requires making accurate judgements of what they know and then employing repair strategies when comprehension fails. Relying on research from learning science and cognitive and developmental psychology, we developed the Word Knowledge e-Book (WKe-Book) to improve children's calibration of their word knowledge, strategy use, and word knowledge overall; skills which are associated with reading comprehension. The WKe-Book, which is read on a tablet computer, is a choose-your-own adventure book where choices require choosing between two rare words (e.g., cogitate vs. procrastinate). Depending on the word chosen, the story follows a different plot. There are also embedded comprehension questions where students receive immediate feedback with consequences for incorrect answers, such as being sent back to reread a few pages. In a randomized controlled trial, we tested whether students (N = 603 in 25 third through fifth grade classrooms in Arizona in the US) reading the WKe-Book would demonstrate improved word knowledge, strategy use, and word knowledge calibration. Classrooms were randomly assigned to read the WKe-Book immediately (treatment) or later (delayed-treatment control), and within classrooms, students were randomly assigned to either participate in a 15-minute weekly book club (book club treatment) or to read the WKe-Book independently with no book club (no book club control). Results revealed a significant treatment effect of the WKe-Book on students' word knowledge, word knowledge calibration, and strategy use, which predicted student performance on standardized reading comprehension and vocabulary measures. The effects were greater for students who participated in weekly book clubs compared to students in the no book club control. These findings suggest that the affordances offered by technology, which are unavailable in paper-based books, can support students' development of metacognition, including word knowledge calibration, strategy use, and word learning skills.

Using Technology and Assessment to Personalize Instruction: Preventing Reading Problems

Children who fail to learn to read proficiently are at serious risk of referral to special education, grade retention, dropping out of high school, and entering the juvenile justice system. Accumulating research suggests that instruction regimes that rely on assessment to inform instruction are effective in improving the implementation of personalized instruction and, in turn, student learning. However, teachers find it difficult to interpret assessment results in a way that optimizes learning opportunities for all of the students in their classrooms. This article focuses on the use of language, decoding, and comprehension assessments to develop personalized plans of literacy instruction for students from kindergarten through third grade, and A2i technology designed to support teachers' use of assessment to guide instruction. Results of seven randomized controlled trials demonstrate that personalized literacy instruction is more effective than traditional instruction, and that sustained implementation of personalized literacy instruction first through third grade may prevent the development of serious reading problems. We found effect sizes from .2 to .4 per school year, which translates into about a 2-month advantage. These effects accumulated from first through third grade with a large effect size (d = .7) equivalent to a full grade-equivalent advantage on standardize tests of literacy. These results demonstrate the efficacy of technology-supported personalized data-driven literacy instruction to prevent serious reading difficulties. Implications for translational prevention research in education and healthcare are discussed.

Individualizing Student Instruction in Reading: Implications for Policy and Practice

Despite three decades of scientific and public attention on efforts to improve literacy in America, little progress has been made in closing achievement gaps across racial, ethnic and socioeconomic lines. This article argues that one major reason is failure to take into account the mosaic of strengths and weaknesses individual children bring to school. With this comes the failure to develop personalized instruction for each child. We briefly review the research available, and then describe how research, ours and others, supports the efficacy of individualizing or personalizing student instructional (ISI) and illustrate how society might close achievement gaps. ISI, and other regimes, offer a systematic instructional program, incorporate child assessment, and personalized small-group instruction. In ISI, this is aided by computer-generated recommendations and planning tools, coupled with extensive, ongoing professional development. ISI has been shown to be highly effective from preschool through third grade in improving children's literacy skills. The practical and policy implications of implementing effective instruction are discussed.